Dana Holgorsen talks Kingsbury, thinks Mahomes is "a freak"

DALLAS - The relationship between Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury and West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen has evolved over the years. From a player-coach relationship when both were at Texas Tech under Mike Leach, to co-workers at Houston under Kevin Sumlin to head coaching peers in the Big 12, the dynamics of their friendship have changed.

Yet, while the two remain close friends, they don't speak as often as they'd like.

"I watch from afar," said Holgorsen this week at Big 12 Media Days. "I don't communicate with him like I'd like to. I don't communicate with him like we used to. No head coaches do that play each other in the same league. I worry way more about what we do than they do. But, got a soft spot for Texas Tech, and I've got a soft spot for Kliff and his coaches, for that program, and I wish him all the success in the world for all but one game."

And while he only pays attention to what's going on from a distance now, Holgorsen has watched Kingsbury grow into one of the top quarterback coaches in the country.

"He understands the position as well as anybody," Holgorsen said. "Kliff is a smart guy. He was a successful quarterback, played in the league for a long time, was under a lot of people, and he just absorbed a lot of stuff from a lot of people, understands the mentality that needs to exist with that position, drills the quarterback as well as anybody I've seen drill the quarterback. You wanna talk about one of the business? He's probably one you can pinpoint."

Kingsbury's latest pupil is junior quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who led the FBS in total offensive yards per game in 2015. Holgorsen knows all about the Red Raider signal caller, and he didn't shy away from laying out just how good he thinks Mahomes could be this fall.

"He's a freak. Physically, he's just extremely gifted," Holgorsen said. "I was hoping he'd play baseball. Now that he's committed to football, you're going to see him make more routine plays. You didn't really see him making a whole lot routine plays. You saw him making all these extraordinary plays, like backyard football extraordinary plays. It's scary to think that he's committed to football to the point that he can start making routine plays."

Holgorsen and his staff managed to slow Mahomes down a year ago, however, as the Mountaineers held him to a season low in passing yards (196) and yards per completion (5.8).

"I don't know if they just didn't play good or if we just had a good gameplan," he said. "We were pretty motivated in that game, and I think we had a scheme that kind of had him on his heels a little bit. Luckily, we scored enough to be able to win that one."

Tech and West Virginia face off in Lubbock on October 15.